Watercooling a 470GTX - Spec me

[AgedIdiot]

Am dissapointed with the heat and noise that my Asus 470 produces so have decided to :-

1. Dismantle the cooler and apply some MX2 paste (Only non-conductive thermal paste I've got 'in' at the moment)
This will I hope lose a few degrees - but I anticipate that it will be a short term measure only as it will still be too loud and noisy.

2. Possibly buy one of the new Zalman coolers which are due any day.
This may do the trick but who knows and what would the cost be ?

3. Possibly turn to water cooling - this would be 'new' to me so am a bit (possibly over) wary as have no idea what I need , what it would cost nor how complicated it would be to set up /maintain.

Although I have not yet finally decided between options 2 and 3 , the comments made by others about watercooling generally (much less noise, better overclocking etc) do make me think that I should now go down that route - I enjoy 'building' my computers and this should be just an extension ??

But am at a loss as to what exactly I would need so.... help!

Also if anyone can point me to any site(s) giving 'idiot' guide(s) to watercooling a graphics card (470 in particular) this would be much appreciated.

My case is a Haf 932 - motherboard is an Asus P5Q-E - q9650 running at 4ghz cooled by 'quiet' prolimatech air cooler. (No intention at moment of watercooling cpu - may do so later but thoughts are that if I do I'll go for a seperate watercooling system/loop.)

 

[AgedIdiot]

Anyone?

 

[Freakbro]

I am in the same dilemma

I'm running 2 x 470's insli and the top card is starved for air as its blocked by the bottom card.

Water cooling would be the best solution i know, but cost/knowledge on how to set it up is putting me off

My concern over a 3rd party cooler for the top card is :

a) will it just suffer from being blocked by the bottom card as well thus being ineffective anyway?

b) how wide are the 3rd party coolers - will it actually fit with the second card being so close?

i have the P6X58D-e mobo and the cards are in the top 2 pcie slots - cant fit them in slots 1 & 3 due to case

 

[mmj_uk]

When I first went WCing I bought a high-end kit from a specialist WCing store and bought a GPU waterblock (and 2 extra barbs) separately to add it to the loop.

 

[garnhamr]

1.Find out if your card has a nvidia reference pcb (so the EK waterblocks will fit).
2.If they're not you could buy a gpu only block (not full coverage) and seperate heatsinks for the vram. This can be quite a delicate proccess though :/
3.Buy waterblock, pump, resevour, tubing, 120.2 or 120.3 radiator (120.? means how many 120mm fans it needs), buy fans (larger size rad you go means you can get slower rpm fans resulting in less noise), buy coolant (distilled water and some silver aka killcoil is cheaper), buy apropriate size barbs. Also buy some small cable ties to make sure your tubing is perfectly tight on every barb.
4.figure out how/where you gonna put everything (might be best to do this before you buy everything though xD)
5.Install

EK full cover waterblock £55
120.3 radiator £60
3 120mm fans £30-50
pump £30
tubing £10
distilled water and silver £10
resevour £15
cable ties £3
barbs £5

total £223

 

[AgedIdiot]

Thanks garnhamr - Got to say I did think it might be a little on the expensive side (as compared to sticking with the standard cooler) but £250+ is a little more than I hoped.
But the noise still irritates the hell out of me and I've got the fans so not quite as costly as qouted.
Saving grace being that it can be used again and again only new bit needed each change being the block?

Will mull over the idea for a bit and will probably wait to see what the cost of the Zalman cooler actually is.

I wonder if Corsair will ever bring out a gpu cooler like the H70? - will keep fingers crossed

 

[Gundog48]

Thanks garnhamr - Got to say I did think it might be a little on the expensive side (as compared to sticking with the standard cooler) but £250+ is a little more than I hoped.
But the noise still irritates the hell out of me and I've got the fans so not quite as costly as qouted.
Saving grace being that it can be used again and again only new bit needed each change being the block?

Will mull over the idea for a bit and will probably wait to see what the cost of the Zalman cooler actually is.

I wonder if Corsair will ever bring out a gpu cooler like the H70? - will keep fingers crossed

Unfortunatly I have heard that the Zalman cooler makes your graphics card 3-slots, which is probably too big.

But the good news, google the CoolIT Omni, that is an enclosed WC loop like the H70 for GPUs. Also, it you ever need to upgrade your graphics card, then there is only a small plate you need to change rather than the entire thing.

 

[garnhamr]

yeah all the parts last ages. Pumps can sometimes go though (very handy to have a spare).
You could keep the cost down by buying a cheap watercooling starter kit and then buying a EK gtx470 block.
That coolit omni sounds good but it only uses a 120.1 rad and reading the review shows its not much better than a standard air cooler but a lot quieter. If it used a 120.2 then i'd say that was a good buy but then i like to overclock

 

[AgedIdiot]

But the good news, google the CoolIT Omni, that is an enclosed WC loop like the H70 for GPUs. Also, it you ever need to upgrade your graphics card, then there is only a small plate you need to change rather than the entire thing.

Interesting - although depends on cost - straight dollar to pound + vat would be £150(approx) which would not be too bad (£130 or less would be better )but if we end up with the,more, usual same price in pounds as in dollars i.e. £215 I for one would not be interested.

Have not been able to find anyone stocking in the u.k. yet nor prices but will certainly be keeping an eye on developments.

 

[NathWraith]

CoolIT Omni, expensive and quiet but not very cool. Probably the same as air cooling.

Full watercooling is essential for any 470/480 in my eyes. 90C temps and noisy fans aren't acceptable to be honest.

 

[Greebo]

CoolIT Omni, expensive and quiet but not very cool. Probably the same as air cooling.

Full watercooling is essential for any 470/480 in my eyes. 90C temps and noisy fans aren't acceptable to be honest.

This. The gtx470 annoyed the hell out of me when the fan ramped up. So a couple of Ek water blocks laters (got one 2nd hand for £32.50 ) and a mixture of other 2nd hand stuff and some new and I have gtx470's which will run at 830 and never go above 53C and my fans on my rad are just ticking over on 5v.

 

[AgedIdiot]

have gtx470's which will run at 830 and never go above 53C and my fans on my rad are just ticking over on 5v.

This is what I'm looking for ! Watercooling it is - just to decide wether to 'do' both cpu & gpu .


My thanks to all contributors.

 

[POCalypse]

I too am in the same dilemma

I'm running 2 x 470's in SLI and the top card is starved for air as its blocked by the bottom card (top card running 10/11 degrees hotter than the bottom card under load - i.e. 82 vs 72 degrees when gaming with modest o/c of 720 with no voltage tweak)

I've also got the P6X58D-e mobo and the cards are in the top 2 pcie slots - cant fit them in slots 1 & 3 due to my antec 1200 case.

Nice info in this thread has led me to decide on the following 'upgrade' path for my system:

1. Upgrade case to a HAF X so I can put my GTX 470's in slot's 1 and 3;
2. Utilise the (what I believe to be) superior air cooling of the HAF X (GPU specific facilities with this case) to 'equalise' the card temps;
3. If (2) above brings them both closer to 72 degrees under gaming load - start pushing my overclocking to see what I can gain whilst staying under 85 degrees
4. As a little project in the New Year move to water cooling solution(s) - again using the superior 'space' or support within the HAF X for water cooling.


... all I gotta work out now is how to hide all this from wifey !

 

[Freakbro]

I too am in the same dilemma

I'm running 2 x 470's in SLI and the top card is starved for air as its blocked by the bottom card (top card running 10/11 degrees hotter than the bottom card under load - i.e. 82 vs 72 degrees when gaming with modest o/c of 720 with no voltage tweak)

I've also got the P6X58D-e mobo and the cards are in the top 2 pcie slots - cant fit them in slots 1 & 3 due to my antec 1200 case.

Nice info in this thread has led me to decide on the following 'upgrade' path for my system:

1. Upgrade case to a HAF X so I can put my GTX 470's in slot's 1 and 3;
2. Utilise the (what I believe to be) superior air cooling of the HAF X (GPU specific facilities with this case) to 'equalise' the card temps;
3. If (2) above brings them both closer to 72 degrees under gaming load - start pushing my overclocking to see what I can gain whilst staying under 85 degrees
4. As a little project in the New Year move to water cooling solution(s) - again using the superior 'space' or support within the HAF X for water cooling.


... all I gotta work out now is how to hide all this from wifey !

Heh, I have the same setup with the same problem and am also thinking of changing cases to have them in slots 1 & 3 - Though the 2nd card will be running at x8 instead of x16 - ( reportedly this only leads to a slight drop in performance.)

This should lead to more managable temps, as atm the top card hits 83* on full load with a 700/1400 OC and fan 80% - nowhere near as good as watercooling admittedly

The other issue i found though when i tried slots 1 & 3 on the P6X58D-E mobo was the front case cables (pwr switch, HDD light, USB header etc) stood too high and stopped the gtx470 slotting into the pcie slot....maybe check that out before buying the new case....and let me know if you find a solution